Yet another one of those "biography of things" books that I adore, written by the guy who can be argued started this whole genre.

In addition to paper, this book is just as much about the evolution of writing, the early book industry (or incunabula, one of my favorite words from library school) and printing in general. I liked the earlier parts of the book that dealt with the topic from a historic view. The later chapters felt a bit unnecessary and seemed somehow separate. Kurlansky seems to have just visited some modern paper mills and people who make paper by hand around the world -- notably Japan and the Basque region in Europe. It's full of statistics and details about industrial age printing equipment. There are plenty of illustrations throughout the book of paper artifacts, but I would have appreciated some illustrations of the paper-making process and associated tools, considering so much of the book was devoted to this topic.

I will note, however that the paper on which this book was printed seemed above average in quality, which was quite pleasing.